The Invisible Man
by Tari Ancalime
Summary: This is a story based on the popular anime, "Fruits Basket". It has the characters Kyou and Yuki but the setting is different, with other different characters.


The Invisible Man  
By Katie Chappell  
  
When looking back at high school, people always remember stereotypes and cliques. Who was dating who, which guys were the bullies, and who they picked on. The Goths, preps, druggies, and nerds. You remember them all. But what most people don't usually remember are those who just blended in with the background, almost invisible. Most people that is, except for me. One such person I remember is a boy called Kyou Sohma.  
He was a tall boy of 16. His skin was very pale. Kyou stood out in the crowd of 100 students of brunette heads in his junior class because he had fiery red hair. If you wanted to find him, you could usually locate him in the back of the classroom, his deep, glowing blck eyes just staring through space complete with his bland expression. He always owore around his wrist a navy blue and white bracelet, which he constantly twirled around his wrist. His body was well bilt, probably because of the martial arts he studied, and the fights he got involved in. He never had any friends. Perhaps it was because he was so bitter. No one knew what ever went through his mind. Mostly, it was hate.  
I remember the first day I walked into class. As I looked around the room, I saw the clusters of stereotypes. They were each in little clumps spread across the room. But, what specifically attracted my eye was this: Kyou was slouched in his chair, his hand under his chin, glaring. Behind Kyou was a group of girls. I thought at first that they were talking about something that happened on television the previous night. Or maybe someone got a new outfit. As I walked closer and closer to this cluster of girls, I realized it was because they were circled around some boy. Later, I found out this was Kyou's brother. His brother, Yuki, was the class heartthrob. They called him the "Prince." I figured that Kyou was jealous. But it seemed that he didn't care enough about anything or anyone to be jealous. I sat down next to him. I put out my hand.  
"I'm Katie." I said.  
"What do you want?" He was looking down at his bracelet and moving it around his wrist.  
"I'm new here." Kyou looked up at me. He hesitated at first, but then grabbed my hand and shook it firmly.  
"If you think my brother's cute, you'll fit well in here." He sat up and walked out of the room.  
I didn't see him for the rest of the day. While I was packing up my books, I felt this sinking feeling in my heart. As I looked behind me, I saw him walk through the hall. It was as if I was entranced to follow him. I pursued him down the hall. Turn after turn, I found myself on the school roof. There, right infront of me, was Kyou. Off in the distance, I saw another figure. As I winced (while hiding behind the door leading to the roof), I noticed it was Yuki or the "Prince." Also, to accompany him was his fan club. I listened closely.  
"Alright, let's get this settled once and for all." Kyou rolled up his sleeves and cracked his knuckles. Yuki just yawned, beat his big blue eyes and stretched his long limbs.  
Are you sure you want to fight me? This has become a daily routine for us, and I always beat you." He shifted his body weight and leaned against the edge of the room. That was when Kyou ran towards him.  
That's when you're wrong!" I could tell that Kyou got irritated very easily. This made me feel a little better passed on the incident with him that happened this morning. He punched Yuki across the face, some would say, Yuki's best feature. Yuki kicked Kyou in the stomach. Kyou huddled to the ground, curled in a little ball. Suddenly, I felt something touch my shoulder.  
"Come on, Katie. You don't need to see this." It was one of my classmates. She took me down the stairs. "They are at it all the time. I don't know how Shigure puts up with it." I gave her a confused look. "Oh, Shigure is their other brother, the one who looks after them now that their parents are gone." I didn't bother to ask what happened to their parents. There were just so many questions I had.  
Day after day, I would see Kyou. In the morning, sitting by himself, glaring at Yuki and his fanclub, during the day, sitting alone at lunch, and in the afternoon, engaged in a book. One afternoon, I asked him what he was reading. He never looked up at me, but said it was a book on martial arts. He was studying it. I figured it was because he wanted to fight Yuki and finally win.  
"How long have you been studying martial arts?" I asked.  
"Two years. One day I will beat him." I guess he assumed I knew who he was referring to.  
"Oh?" I tried to remain neutral, so not to give away that I was spying on him a couple weeks ago.  
"I saw you. That one day. On the roof." He fiddled with the paper in his book and then started moving his bracelet around his wrist again.  
"Oh." I couldn't tell if he was mad or not. I figured he was. It was then that he shut his book. Looks like I had his attention now.  
"I don't know why you would want to talk to someone like me. No one really likes me."  
"That's not true. It's just that you're different from everybody else. And so what? Why should that matter? If everyone looked or acted the same, the world would be a boring place."  
"I guess so."  
"I find mysterious people very interesting. You seem to have a past. Very deep past."  
"Okay, Miss Cleo." He continued reading his book. I guess Kyou wasn't ready for anything deep. The bell rang and it was time to go home.  
For the rest of that day, I couldn't concentrate. I was glad that I was able to carry a conversation with him after all these weeks. There was something very interesting about him. Perhaps it was the fact that he was mysterious. He stood out from a crowd, physically and emotionally. He was bitter on the outside, but inside, I could tell that he can be a sensitive, caring person. All I needed to do was bring that person out.  
For Christmas, I decided to bake him a cake. But, I wasn't doing it for the wrong reasons. I wasn't going out of my way to please him because of pity. I'm sure we were both looking for a friend. As I discretely placed it in his locker, I went and hid around a classroom door to observe. He opened his locker and noticed the cake. Suddenly, his sullen eyes widened. I saw the wrinkle around his scowl turn into a smile. For the first time since going to Chaplin Prep, I saw that he was happy, even for a couple seconds. He then quickly noticed what he was doing, and stopped smiling. I felt good inside. I knew that for one moment, this boy, with a twisted and depressed soul, was content. Someone was thinking about him. Even though he could stop, I couldn't stop smiling.  
Later that day, he approached me.  
"Did you give me that cake in my locker? He had a blank expression on his face. I didn't know what he was thinking. I nodded my head.  
"Yes. Did you like it?"  
"Yes. Thank you." He then walked away. I thought it was very strange. Even though he didn't like to express his feelings much, I could tell he was grateful.  
One day, I was waiting at the train station, on my way home. I had missed the train, and it started to rain. I was angry because the trains ran on an hourly schedule. It was the middle of January, and I was wet and cold. I had had a bad day at school also, so I just started to cry. The rain started to pour heavily and my tears mixed in with the raindrops. All of a sudden it stopped. I looked up and noticed Kyou standing in front of me. He was holding an umbrella. Kyou wiped the tears from my eyes.  
"Stop crying. People will stare." I sensed he was trying to comfort me, but wasn't used to it.  
"Sorry." I sniffed and dried my face with my sleeve.  
"You miss your train? I missed mine too."  
"Wanna wait together?" I asked.  
"I guess. Nothing else to do." He leaned against a fence and looked up at the sky. "So, why were you crying?" He demanded. "Sorry, I mean, are you okay?" It meant a lot to me, even though he quite didn't know how to say it. I told him that I received a bad grade on a test and got in a fight with one of my friends.  
"Oh, who needs them? They just cause you trouble. Well, the bad ones, anyway." As we talked, I felt I got to know more and more about him and that we really connected. When my train got here, I called as I walked in the doorway,  
"I'll see you tomorrow?"  
"I guess. I'll be in the back like always. The loser playing with the bracelet."  
"Good." The train started moving and I sat in my seat. I was glad to get through to him. Most people saw the bitterness in him, but that was because they didn't even know him. I figured that he had social issues, but he's getting better every day. Thinking this made me feel happy. So, I lost a friend, but I gained a new one. 


End file.
